Agent Smith
Smith first appears in The Matrix as an agent; a program whose primary purpose was to eliminate anything or anyone that could reveal the truth of the Matrix or cause harm to its virtual reality. In all three Matrix films, Smith was portrayed by Hugo Weaving. History Agent of the System Smith first appears with agents Brown and Jones in an unsuccessful attempt to "apprehend" Trinity. Unlike Brown and Jones, Smith has a more defined personality. He is not only more conversational to bluepills, but he also states opinion, ilicits sarcasm, and a less than veiled disdain for his existence within the Matrix. Smith speaks in a neutral manner to the bluepill known as Thomas Anderson after his apprehension at his workplace at MetaCortex. After Smith attempts to intimidate Anderson by offering to wipe his criminal record clean in exchange for information on a "terrorist" Smith calls Morpheus, Anderson refuses to cooperate. Smith and agents do not hesitate to bug Anderson's body to aid them later in tracing his location and, perhaps, anyone else that Anderson meets. But Smith and the agents fail to place a higher priority on the man named Anderson, who escapes from the Matrix with the help of Morpheus. Later, Smith almost captures Anderson (as part of a sting that Cypher plots against his own crew) but instead manages to capture the elusive Morpheus instead. Smith interogates Morpheus in an attempt to obtain the codes to the Zion mainframe. However, much to the confusion of his fellow agents, Smith talks to Morpheus of a failed Matrix, his hatred of the virtual reality, and his desire to leave. Smith removes his earpiece during his extended plea, not aware that a tiny rescue force was attempting to rescue their prisoner. Smith and the other agents are felled by machine gun fire from the rescue helicopter flown by Trinity, but soon possess other bodies. Smith almost succeeds in stopping Morpheus' escape, and does cripple their heliocopter, but the Zion operatives escape long enough for two of their party to jack out. Smith hears a disturbance from a bluepill in a subway station, possesses that person and finds Anderson. Smith knows that Anderson prefers his hacker nickname of "Neo," but Smith calls him "Mr. Anderson" throughout a powerful, but eventually pyrrhic fight, with Neo able to dispatch Smith through a train collision, only to have Smith repossess another body to continue their fight and begin Neo's pursuit. Smith manages to corner Anderson to shoot and kill him just feet away from an escape telephone. The other agents check him to verify Anderson is dead, but moments later, Anderson stands up and, now empowered as The One, dispatches their gunfire by stopping their bullets in midair. When Smith moves in to deliver fists into Anderson, the human effortlessly blocks all attacks with a single arm and kicks Smith away. Smith's destiny within the Matrix is apparently changed when Neo leaps into the body of Smith and explodes the agent's avatar from within, apparently destroying the program. A virus Smith's programming was initially instructed to return to the Source, but something happened; Smith was able to resist the command. His programming compelled him to stay within the Matrix, a program without a purpose. By becoming "unplugged" from the System, Smith becomes sociopathic, intent on destroying the Matrix, one person at a time. Smith's appearance changes; his suit becomes a jet black and not the dull charcoal color of the upgraded agents that replaces Smith and his former colleagues. Worst of all, Smith has attained a new ability. Instead of possessing bluepills as would an agent, Smith stabs anyone, bluepill, redpill, or exile with his hand and copies his code over the original, turning them into another copy of himself. Smith overwrites a Zion operative named Bane, which allows Smith's corrupted consciousness to escape the Matrix to exist as a personality in Bane's body in the real world. In Zion, Bane/Smith futilely attempts to kill Neo, but manages to join Bane's crew on a hovercraft that is to take part in the Zion offensive to stop the sentinel attack. One particular person resists his attempt to be assimilated: Neo resists his viral assimilation attempt. Smith eventually forces Anderson to escape by flight after attacking him in sheer numbers. Smith encounters Neo again within the backdoors of the Matrix, almost successfully assimilating Morpheus before Neo intervenes, but the rogue agent's copies succeed in killing the Keymaker. By the time that Neo receives his final objective to stop the Machine War, Smith (in the guise of Bane) stows away on the Logos, attacking Trinity and blinding Neo before being dispatched after Neo discovers his power to see Machine code within his mind's "eye." Neo negotiates a truce in the seemingly endless war with the Deus Ex Machina on one condition: Stop Smith, who has now assimilated virtually every program and avatar in the Matrix and now threatens the Machines in the real world. When Neo encounters Smith again on a rainy street, with other copies of the rogue agent watching on, a single Smith steps from the crowd. This copy has assimilated the Oracle and now has powers that match, and soon overcome even the powers of The One. Celebrating his apparent victory over an exhausted Neo, the super-Smith finds himself repeating something that the Oracle told Neo, which gives The One a final understanding of what he must do: "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo." The fact that the super-Smith calls Anderson by his hacker name and not "Mr. Anderson" confirms this final revelation. Neo deliberately allows Smith to assimilate his avatar. The super-Smith asks the Smith/Neo combination, "Is it over?" His newest clone nods, and shortly begins to disintegrate as the Deus Ex Machina uses the Smith/Neo fusion to locate and destroy every single copy of Smith. All the avatars that remain within the Matrix return to their former personas after the Matrix is reloaded. Category:Agents Category:Machine Characters Category:Exile Characters